Posts Tagged ‘Q-Games’

Q-Games define the Pixeljunk brand as representing “simplicity, familiarity, and originality”. With this ethos in mind Pixeljunk Shooter’s title, manages to at least be fifty percent accurate, because it sure as hell isn’t a shooter. The problem is the term ‘shooter’ has become synonymous with a screen filled with bullets, requiring precision manoeuvring just to survive. In Shooter you are greeted with a more thoughtful experience that relies more on reason than twitch reflexes.

Titling the game ‘Shooter’ is not completely erroneous as it does from the primary interface with the game world. These bullet-based interactions are not as aggressive as you may anticipate, instead you spend the majority of you time shooting through rock to move torrents of various liquids (lava, water or a magnetic black goo) from one area to another in an attempt to melt, solidify or vaporise them. It is in these interactions, and how to initiate and control them that forms the more cerebral puzzle aspects that sit at the core of the game.

‘Shooter’ takes a very holistic approach to design. From the graphics to the dynamic fluid physics it is clear that at each step the interaction of these elements and their effect on atmosphere and gameplay was at the forefront of the designers’ minds. The trance like music ensures a feeling of serenity as you make your way through tranquil cavernous levels. Even the enemies seem to be in no real hurry to do you harm, indeed sometimes antagonists are necessary to get through areas and need to be manipulated rather than dispensed with. Everything encourages you to relax and think leading you organically towards solutions.

‘Shooters’ damage system is no exception to its holistic ethos. Working in tandem with the world’s physics your craft’s health takes the heat. Over heating your ship results in a system malfunction causing you to drift, uncontrollably towards death. Being near a heat source causes your temperature to rise, while water and time allow you to cool. Because of this even if your overheated ship is set adrift uncontrollably landing in water will instantly cool you allowing you back in to the action. It’s a wonderful system, negating the need for health packs and instead tying your survival to your tactics.

On a few rare occasions the game grants abilities beyond those of the environment and your craft. By altering the properties of you ship you receive as many drawbacks as you do bonuses. One such ability is the lava spray, which allows you to shower lava down on levels, but doesn’t protect you from its hazardous effects.

It was this lava power that featured in one of my favourite puzzles of the game where I had to redirect a waterfall into a pool of lava to allow me to penetrate its porous solid form. Forced to fire the lava directly above my self to get the angle required to plug the waterfall I had to perform a careful balancing act between the effect of the cooling water and the burning lava as gravity dragged both back towards me. Carefully constructing the damn I managed to stop the path of the water, creating a basin that promptly overflowed, cooling the molten pool and allowing me to drill my way through.

Pixeljunk Shooter is filled from start to finish with similar example of this natural design. It leads you through levels, organically teaching you as you go. It is a beautiful game both in terms of its appearance and design. I was so swept up by the games design that I almost completed in a single (four hour sitting), and it was only sleep that finally pulled me away at 5 am.

Thinking back to last year’s Tokyo Game Show I recall the excitement I felt as I queued in the rain waiting to go in. The expectant crowd and I anticipating the moment the doors would open so we could enter the three huge halls that comprised the Makuhari Messe exhibition center. Everyone in line was doing the same thing; contemplating what we wanted to see when we finally got in.

By comparison this years event had decidedly less of the energy I felt in the crowd the previous year. I was still excited about going to the show but more of the rush came from being able attend the industry days. Reduced foot traffic would mean access to more games and my appointments would enable me to get time with developers rather than just being patronized by the (cute) booth staff.

Entering the floor bore out my predictions. It was quieter, as demonstrated by the fact within an hour I had played more games than I managed in a whole day the previous year, but somehow it was also less exciting. Perhaps the thrill of the open floor was muted by the realization that there were few titles I was interested in. None of the big titles I wanted to see where on the floor, and the games that were had distinctly less buzz than those at the ’08 show.

Both Resident Evil 5 and Street Fighter 4 had been present in 2008. These were franchises that shaped the way I look at games, the two games from my youth that I remember most fondly. Their presence alone had had me agitated with excitement at the prospect of seeing what Capcom had planed for my cherished memories. By contrast the ’09 line up was filled with series that I acknowledge are top tier (such Final Fantasy XIII) but held none of the nostalgic impact for me.

Another contributing factor to my comparative indifference to the show resulted from the lack off publishers present. I wasn’t aware before the show how few of the big western developers made the trip to Japan, but when many of the years big releases are the properties of companies like EA and Activision their absence becomes painfully evident.

It wasn’t just western publishers who had deemed not to attend either. I don’t know whether it was an economic reason or a lack of product, but a number of the larger Japanese companies were also missing in action. SNK was among these notable absentees. Last year had the company present in full force with a huge display for King of Fighters 12 that occupied much of the entrance hall, but their nonattendance this year saw their floor space filled with mobile phone game developers. Tecmo and Koei’s merging this year also resulted in a reduced floor presence as the two huge areas they had previously occupied were now reduced to one.

To compound feeling of a lack of ‘AAA’ titles, many of this year’s big releases have been rated ‘Z’ by CERO Japan’s governing classifications body. Under this rating the games in stores are segregated from other games and put out of reach of under twenty-one year olds. At the show this translated to them being hidden from view in darken rooms. Thus it was only on my second day that I realized a number of games I wanted to see were present. Left 4 Dead 2, God of War 3 and Heavy Rain all remained hidden from view, making them hard to find if you explicitly go searching for them. This ended up being quite costly to my coverage because games that weren’t immediately self-evident I assumed were casualties of the diminished developer presence.

It may seem like I was unimpressed by my TGS ’09 experiences, but despite the lack of energy it remained a fascinating weekend. I got to see, and more importantly play, lots of fantastic games.

The highlights for me remain the time I spent with Q-Games, Capcom and The Behemoth (expect a transcription of my interview with them soon). Each of these companies had knowledgeable representatives (PR or developers) on hand who were happy to answer all my questions, rather than just bustle me through their booth. While they were obviously there to promote their games it didn’t dilute the feeling that these were companies confident in their products and happy to push it to the community.

In the end I was lucky enough to actually see the majority I wanted to. I did miss Okami Den and Valkiria Chronicles 2 but for the two days I was there I think I got to see about as much as I could have hoped to while leaving myself time to cover what I saw in a timely fashion.

If truth were told I was almost at breaking point through out my two days at the show. Existing the first day on three hours sleep and without food, I ran from 5am on Friday until 4am Saturday when I finally decided (after writing up eight articles) that I should try and sleep before my 8am alarm for the following day. The second day I was in two minds about even attending, remembering my success (or lack there of) on the previous year’s open days. Unfortunately one site I was writing for had requested photos of booth babes and coz-players (not something I am comfortable with) and as there were no coz-players on the industry day I had to make the return trip. As I took the pictures I reasoned that I was skillfully hiding hide myself among the crowds of Japanese otaku trying to get up skirt shots, making me feel less self conscious. I wasn’t of course, I am nearly two meters tall with red hair, but it made me feel a little less perverted as I took my surreptitious photos.

It was also nice to see the larger crowd on the public day, as while the industry days expedites coverage, the enthused visitors create an excitement around the event that is infectious. Sadly though it was immediately apparent that the audience was significantly diminished from that of ’08. Even accounting for the extra space created from the reduced developers attendance the halls felt empty (or at least as empty as any where can feel with around sixty one thousand people in a room).

It transpires that the crowd was in fact some ten thousand fewer on the first public day this year, almost solely accounting for the dip in overall attendance. Honestly I don’t know what to attribute these reduced numbers to. Initially I assumed it would be linked to the amount of coverage the games on show have already received, combined with the fact that for anyone who had attended one of the other recent previous events, such as E3, PAX or Game Com, would have already seen the demos on offer. This certainly seemed to be the feeling among foreign games press who made the journey to Japan to cover the event only to be met by the same games that they had seen less than a month previously at PAX. But the missing ten thousand people would nearly all be Japanese consumers, almost all of whom would not have attended the overseas events.

So perhaps the reduced numbers were related to the reduced number of developers and big name games at the show. The 2008 show was full of big name Japanese titles; Final Fantasy XIII, Kingdom Hearts games, Resident Evil, Street Fighter and King of Fighters were all on so and some time from release. 2009 only really saw Final Fantasy XIII and Metal Gear Solid still flying the flag for the big Japanese franchises. With the Metal Gear demo hitting the internet almost simultaneously with the show opening and Final Fantasy XIII just around the corner, gamers were probably more eager to save their entry fee and train fair (over ¥30,000 in the end for me) and put it towards buying the games rather than queuing to play them.

I finally gave up on the show at about 3pm on the Saturday. Having only had time to see two games in the length queues I decided my time would be better spent typing up previews for the fourteen games I had already seen rather than joining the two and a half hour line for a play of Heavy Rain. So I headed home along with my crushing headache, probably a result of sleep deprivation. It was a different and far more productive experience than 2008, but it remained expensive, tiring and something I am glad I don’t have to do too often.